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Wayne in Maine wrote:

Neto wrote:I'm starting to look like a weirdo. (I guess I already knew that.)

But you were half way there weren't you? I thought you were from an ethnic Mennonite background.

As the question is completely hypothetical I can't really vote for the 100%, which is not hypothetical for me and my wife.

I took it literally as it is worded. Yes, I grew up in a Mennonite congregation, and am descended from Mennonite forefathers, but none were what people here define as "Conservative Mennonite". (In fact, I recall hearing some of the older men in my childhood congregation react strongly to being called 'Mennonite' - we were 'Mennonite Brethren', not 'Mennonite". This is a carry on of the severity of the break between the old church in the colonies, and the new movement which became the MBs.)

KingdomBuilder wrote:How likely do you think it is that you, if you would have been born in a tradition outside of CA, would ever end up in a CA church?

Feel free to expound upon your reasoning below.

Ernie wrote:.01%

I gave this percentage, since I am still with a religion that is at first glance very similar to the one in which I was raised.

However, I now idealize a belief system and sub-culture within that religion that is in some ways very much the same and in other ways, world's apart from the one with which I was raised.

Would I be where I am now had I not had the "school master" that I did? That is the question I don't know how to answer.

You could compare this perhaps with a person who grows up Evangelical and believes that a person can live however he wants and still get to heaven, and then at some point in life decides that a person needs to live a sanctified life in order to be part of the Kingdom of God, and becomes part of an Evangelical group that also believes this. Is such a person still part of the same religion or not? His Evangelical upbringing definitely put him in the way of Truth that he might not have gotten had he grown up in Saudi Arabia.

Ernie wrote:.01%

This might be the best answer for everyone if they followed your signature. I wonder what the percentage of people in the world that have an accurate or even any CA testimony near to them? Might be far less than .01%

cmbl wrote:Experimental probability appears to be 1.

Ernie wrote:.01%

Hats Off wrote:The probability for me would have been equal to that of the population in general.

These all describe me, more or less.

The current US population is roughly 327 million. If .01% of the US population would be non-ethnic Conservative Anabaptists, there should be about 32,700 of them. I'm pretty sure the actual number is considerably less than that.

There's a much better chance that I could have joined something like a Lancaster Conference or Mennonite Brethren church. I see that as relatively likely.

I'm of the 100% group - having grown up in an evangelical church, a generation or two removed from conservative Anabaptism - but with some family roots in the plain Brethren and Amish communitie. Found my way back I guess.

My belief system based on my understanding of scripture is very similar to the Confession of Faith in a Mennonite perspective. I joined a Mennonite church over 17 years ago. Intentional community has been a call in my life and there is some chance I could have ended up with the Bruderhof or Hutterites, whom I would consider conservative Anabaptist. The dress codes seemed like legalism to me, but one can surrender some freedoms and put aside some beliefs for a good cause. I chose 20%, maybe it should be 30%.